Talent ID: Which characteristics are associated with sporting success? - 10.2 Flashcards
Rees et al. (2016)
see notes
the performer characteristics
birthdate
genetics
anthropometric and physiological factors
psychological skills and motivational orientations
personality traits
birthdate
Relative Age Effect (RAE)
Over representative of those born at start of year
Under representation of those born at end of year
RAE not consistent
Eliminates as athletes get older
May disappear by elite level – become reversed – younger in the year have longer careers
genetics
Not if but which
Explains 20-80% of variance at non-elite level
Heritable component to: Agility Sprinting Jumping Throwing Kinematics Reaction time Personality/Character Injury risk
Heritable but reversible – gene expression – not all genes expressed in the same way – e.g. mothers activity levels – functional adaption to training
Genetics can be modifiable
Influenced from different generations
anthropometric and physiological factors
Height, weight, (lean) body mass, bone mineral content/density, limb length/circumference, amount of adipose tissue, jumping/sprinting ability, strength, VO2max,
Aerobic capacity, Anaerobic endurance, Anaerobic power
Use limited by:
Individual variability in growth
Instability of physiological/anthropometric in adolescence
Biological maturation – difficult to predict what they will be like when they are an adult
psychological skills and motivational orientations - more successful athletes
display:
Higher levels of motivation
Higher levels of confidence and perceived control – elite feel more in control of their actions
Higher levels of mental toughness/resilience – ability to cope is characteristic of elite performers
Better ability to cope with adversity
Greater resistance to choking
Wide range of mental skills
psychological skills and motivational orientations - elite athletes
Base perceptions of competence on personal improvements
Have strong ego orientation to formulate perceptions of confidence by comparing performance
Display self-determined motivation – stronger level of motivation
Higher levels of extrinsic motivation
High evidence that psychological factors are a predictor
personality traits
More successful athletes display: Greater conscientiousness Dispositional optimism More hope Adaptive perfectionism – only up until the point where it is useful Narcissism
Moderate evidence
Personality profiling should be used for talent development but NOT talent ID
the Wonderlic test
Invented in the 1930s
No evidence to support usefulness – but no other profiling options
Teams in the NFL have been using the Wonderlic as a tool to assess players for about 30 years
It’s used during the February scouting combine
It’s a twelve-minute, fifty-question test used to assess the aptitude of prospective employees for learning and problem-solving in a wide range of occupations.
A score of 20 is intended to indicate average intelligence (corresponding to an intelligence quotient of 100; a rough conversion is accomplished via the following formula: IQ = 2WPT + 60
Wonderlic higher scoring applicants
learn more rapidly
master more complex material
exercise better judgment
Wonderlic lower scoring applicants
require more time
need detailed task instruction
require less challenging job routines.
average scores in the Wonderlic test
Offensive tackle - 26
Center - 25
Quarterback - 24
Guard - 23
Tight end - 22
Safety - 19
Linebacker - 19
Cornerback - 18
Wide receiver - 17
Fullback – 17
Halfback - 16
Pat McInally is the only football player to record a confirmed perfect score of 50 – coaches don’t like outliets
An average football player usually scores ~ 20
Average participant from other professions scores ~ 24.
Examples of scores from everyday professions included:
Chemist - 31 Programmer - 29 Journalist - 26 Sales - 24 Bank teller - 22 Clerical worker - 21 Security guard - 17 Warehouse – 15
Players scores make big headlines Nick Saban – helped players cheat on the test
the environment - birthplace
o In the UK populations of 10,000 - 29,999 are more likely to produce Olympic athletes
o Areas between 500,000 and 999,999 are disadvantaged
o World Class Programme (WCP):
- 1 x more likely to be born in medium sized town (50,000- 99,999)
- 5 x more likely to attend primary school in a very small village (<1999 residents)
3x more likely to attend secondary school in a very small village (<1999 residents)
Birthplace or place of early development? – and why does this matter?
the env - support
Crucial during developmental years
Coaches can enhance development of psychological skills/mental toughness
the env - athlete support programmes
Junior success does not predict senior success
Considerable annual turnover of athletes
Younger recruitment = younger exit
Higher levels of elite success = higher age of recruitment
Super-elite are recruited to support programmes at later ages than elite – going in young doesn’t help you
Talent transfer athletes (aged 16-25) can reach performance of elite peers within 12 months
Gullich et al. (2019)
see notes
Great British Medallists Project
Participants were 32 former GB athletes from Olympic sports, 16 Super-Elite athletes and 16 matched Elite athletes
Factor most predictive of success = adversity in early life
Do we create survivable failure opportunities?
Is this just a predisposition – pick ‘tougher’ kids
Links to Relative Age Effect (kids who make it despite being young are likely to succeed)
2 groups different with regard to
- the experience of a foundational negative life event coupled with a foundational positive sport related event – main distinguishing factor – there will be many people that have had a negative life events but aren’t elite athletes
- the experience of a career turning point that enhanced motivation and focus for their sport;
- need for success;
- obsessiveness and/or perfectionism with regard to training and performance;
- ruthlessness and/or selfishness in the pursuit of their sporting goals;
- dual focus on both mastery and outcome; and
- the use of counterphobic attitudes and/or total preparation to maintain higher levels of performance under pressure;
- the relative importance of sport over other aspects of life.
- More diversified sporting experiences
ECFC academy aims
see notes
Sell-ons, bench-warmers and fill-ins: the life of Perimier League academy graduates (Barney Ronay)
o Zach Fagan spent 12 years with Arsenal but the glitter of the Premier League proved an illusion experienced by many youngsters, some picked up at the age 4, in a flawed system
o Afobe was spotted by Arsenal at six. Lingard has been at United since he was seven, Borthwick-Jackson a year younger. This is now standard. There are stories of some academies refusing to look at eight year olds because they will have “picked up bad habits”. Joe Willock, an Arsenal scholar, joined when he was four after being spotted juggling a ball on the touchline watching his older brother Chris.
o Premier League clubs will now run a variety of training hubs, enough to work around the rules about formal contracts being signed only at nine years old. Not to mention feeding thousands of doomed dreams among easily distracted infants and their extended families of a future among the footballing heavyweights.
o Plus there is the question of what exactly all this is doing to the players themselves. A huge amount of human wastage takes place. “Give 100% to everything you do and you will get there in the end,” reads a line from the introduction to the Arsenal academy brochure. But this can’t be true. Only Jack Wilshere has made it at Arsenal as a genuine academy product since Ashley Cole…
ECFC academy ‘four corner model’
see notes
influential characteristics for development in elite youth football
see notes
age specific talent identification
see notes
match analysis
see notes
Reliability in Possession
PCE
see notes
speed seems important
see notes
size less so (anthropometric)
see notes
RAE (abstract from data)
The relative age effect (RAE) refers to the bias influence of birth date distribution, with athletes born later in the selection year being under-represented in youth talent development systems.
However, a ‘relative age effect reversal’ (RAER) has also shown that younger birth quarter (BQ) athletes are then over-represented among those who successfully transition from youth systems to senior professional status.
Accordingly, the purpose of this study was twofold; 1) to provide a further test of the RAE (n=192), and 2) to examine the existence of the RAER in an English professional football club academy (n=364).
Sig skewed (ps<0.001) birth rate distributions were found for both current (BQ1 n = 79, BQ2 n = 60, BQ3 n = 34, BQ4 n = 19) and retrospective (BS1 n = 145, BQ2 n = 108, BQ3 n = 54, BQ4 n = 57) player data
The distribution for retrospective data was also sig skewed for prof contracts awarded with BQ4 over-represented compared to others
These findings suggest that the RAE continues to manifest within an academy setting – RAER shows NQ4s 4x more likely to achieve senior prof status compared to BQ1s
Implications for talent ID and development discussed
PCDEQ
MacNamara and Collins (2011)
see notes
most football and other sports
see notes
rocky road
see notes
so what?
Can we tell that what characterises ability early on is predictive of what characterises ability later?
Which factors are most important?
How do we help all players improve where they need to?
